Connectors, commonly referred to as “E-Track Connectors” are used in various applications, such as in the transportation industry, to secure flexible strapping (e.g., webs, belts or the like) to load rails or tracks (e.g., commonly referred to as E-Track) mounted on a transporting surface (e.g., a side, floor or ceiling of a container, truck hold, load bed, dolly, or other cargo areas). In one specific use, the strapping or straps are used for holding one or more objects in partially loaded containers or areas so that they will not shift (e.g., within the container or area) and cause damage by either striking (e.g., against sides of a container or other items) or other loss. Such connectors are commonly used for trucks, railroad cars, airplanes and shipping containers. In one example, the load rails include a sequence of lock-down apertures.
Each lock-down aperture is capable of accepting an industry standard complementary buckle or clip. The buckle or clip is connected/connectable to the strapping or straps. The straps can be secured (e.g., wrapped over and around) cargo) in any desired or needed fashion. The buckle or clip is then secured to a desired/appropriate aperture point of a load rail. The straps can then be tightened (e.g., via ratchet, winch, turn buckle, etc.).
It is also possible to have a load rail with just a single aperture. Such a single aperture load rail is typically placed at a strategic location so that the otherwise need to select a desired/appropriate aperture point is a non-issue.
Load rails, albeit containing multiple or single aperture point(s) all have apertures that are generally rectangular, and thus have a major, elongate opening dimension and a minor, smaller opening dimension. The buckle or clip has commentary dimensions so that the buckle or clip interfaces with the respective aperture point in a single orientation. Within a load rail with plural apertures, all of the apertures are oriented in the same direction. Thus, for a load rail with plural apertures, the load rail is mounted with the entirety of the apertures arranged in an orientation direction/line (e.g., left-right, fore-aft, vertical, horizontal). Similarly, a load rail with single aperture, once mounted and thus fixed in place has a certain, single orientation direction. Accordingly, the buckle or clip that mates with the load rail must conform to the orientation direction of the aperture(s) in the load rail.
For some locations/applications, the multiple load rails are used to allow different orientation (e.g., horizontal and vertical). Further for some applications, multiple connector anchors are used that have different aperture orientation. These various applications add material and labor cost to install additional connector anchors.
Thus, it is desired to provide an improved connector anchor that does not suffer from these and other disadvantages.